Manor Green Primary Academy
Key Stage 2
Year 4
Autumn 1
Thematic Curriculum – Medium Term Planning
Theme Title:
Theme subject focus:
History / Geography
Anglo Saxons and Vikings
Visits / visitors / enhancements /
WOW factor!
Viking visitor in school
Is home where the heart is?
Key Questions / Learning Challenges (Skills / Concepts)
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Can I explain why people leave their home land to settle / invade another country?
Can I explain how the Anglo Saxons and Vikings help to shape our lives today?
How do I find out what did Anglo Saxons eat, how did they cook and how they travelled?
Do I know what kind of weapons the Anglo Saxons and Vikings used?
Can I recognise differences between the lives of the wealthy people to those of the poor?
Do I appreciate how artefacts found belonging to the past help us to build up an accurate picture of
how people lived in the past?
Do I know the difference between the British Isles, Great Britain and UK?
Can I name up to six cities in the UK and locate them on a map?
Can I locate and name some of the main islands that surround the UK?
Cross-curricular elements overview;
English
Maths
Computing
Design Tech
Art + design
Music
Physical Ed
Religious Ed
SMSC
Languages
Stories with historical setting (Beowulf) Grim Gruesome (series for confident readers) Viking sagas for KS2 (BBC)
Author work – Jeremy Strong (Viking in School) Newspaper report based on Sutton Hoo (Anglo Saxon longboat) Letter home from Viking
warrior to his family back home. Drama / role play ‘a Viking journey’, presenting viewpoints regarding slavery.
Roman numerals up to 100, using the vocabulary of time – decades, centuries, years and months. Round up time differences into
decades and centuries. Co-ordinates – read write and use pairs of coordinates to locate places (map / atlas) work
Using the internet to research Anglo Saxons and Viking aspects of their life. Internet safety Google Earth – locate places on journey
Cooking and nutrition: plan a meal for a Viking about to go to battle. (Research types of food eaten)
Drawing Viking artefacts and warriors in battle combining lines, colour, pattern with movement and form.
Wider opportunities weekly music sessions (brass) Own compositions to represent the movement of a Viking longboat, create a piece
to represent a Viking journey. (different weather conditions etc)
Dance – composing own dance to represent journey or a battle. Use own musical composition or appropriate music to accompany.
Heroes / heroines – inspirational people Key question – do they have to be famous?
Imagine events from a different viewpoint / perspective in relation to a Viking slave auction / empathy with people from the past. Viking
art work / pictures and artefacts
French language and culture
Manor Green Primary Academy
Key Stage 2
Year 4
Autumn 1
Thematic Curriculum – Medium Term Planning
Theme Title:
Is home where the heart is?
Theme focus: History / Geography
Key Focus
Content
Programme of study
Pupils should be taught:
(Chronological understanding)
Using class and personal
 chronological understanding by plotting this period of history
timelines (with other periods of
on a timeline
history) Place Anglo Saxons and
Vikings on a timeline
 to round up time differences into centuries and decades
History
Settlement and invasion
Everyday life of Anglo Saxons
and Vikings – cooking (DT)
Rich and poor (compare and
contrast)
(Knowledge and interpretation)
 why the Vikings invaded Britain and how do we know they
did
 why the Anglo Saxons and Vikings left their homeland and
settled in Britain (rivers, economic land use)
 about everyday life of the Anglo Saxons and Vikings
including cooking and weapons
 the differences between the lives of the rich from the lives of
the poor
Using historical evidence to
make deductions and draw
conclusions (artefacts /
pictures)
Present to others what it was
like for a child (oral / written)
(Historical enquiry)
 to research what it was like to be a child in this period of time
using illustrations to present their findings
 to communicate their knowledge and understanding orally
and in writing and offer points of view based upon what they
have found out.
Geography
Pupils should be taught:
(Geographical enquiry)
 to find the same place on the globe and in an atlas
 to plan a journey to a place in England
(Physical geography)
 to describe the main features of a well-known city (York?)
Investigate using maps- where
the Vikings came from and
where they went on their
journey.
Resources
Class time lines
Own time lines
Investigative
opportunities
Challenge
Why do people move away
from home?
(Philosophy for Children)
Is invasion right or wrong?
Viking visitor
Why do people settle in
certain places?
Photographs,
illustrations about
Anglo Saxons and
Vikings eg longboats
Internet
Artefacts
Photographs of
artefacts (internet)
Map of the world
Globes
Maps
Atlases
Artefacts and photos to
make deductions – what do
they tell us about Anglo
Saxon or Viking life? Which
sources are the most
reliable?
Group to present findings
about an aspect of Anglos
Saxon / Viking life to other
using a variety of strategies
for presenting information
eg visual iads, oral
accounts, pictures, ICT
Manor Green Primary Academy
Key Stage 2
Year 4
Autumn 1
Thematic Curriculum – Medium Term Planning
Theme Title:
Plan a journey from Denton to
London – plan an ‘invasion.’
Is home where the heart is?
(Geographical knowledge)
 the difference between the British Isles, Great Britain and the
United kingdom (UK)
 to name up to six cities in the UK and locate them on a map.
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locate and name some of the main islands that surround the
UK.
Blank maps (British
Isles, Great Britain,
UK)
Learn the names of towns
and cities on your invasion
journey
Cross-curricular elements: English, mathematics, design technology, art+design, music, P.E. R.E.
Key Focus
Content
ENGLISH (writing / oracy)
Viking ‘Wanted Poster’
Diary entry
Chronological reports
(Newspaper)
Letter home from a battle,
invasion or journey (write with
emotion!)
Author Work – Jeremey Strong
Programme of study
Pupils should be taught to:
plan their writing by:
 discussing writing similar to that which they are planning to write in
order to understand and learn from its structure, vocabulary and
grammar
 discussing and recording ideas
draft and write by:
 composing and rehearsing sentences orally (including dialogue),
progressively building a varied and rich vocabulary and an
increasing range of sentence structures (English Appendix 2)
 organising paragraphs around a theme
 in non-narrative material, using simple organisational devices [for
example, headings and sub-headings]
evaluate and edit by:
 assessing the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing and
suggesting improvements
 proposing changes to grammar and vocabulary to improve
consistency, including the accurate use of pronouns in sentences
 proof-read for spelling and punctuation errors
 read aloud their own writing, to a group or the whole class, using
appropriate intonation and controlling the tone and volume so that
the meaning is clear.
Resources
Samples of text
types to be
taught
I can statements
for different text
types
‘Viking Raiders’
Sutton Hoo
events
Photographs of
the Anglo Saxon
Long Boat
‘Viking in
School’ by
Jeremy Strong
Investigative
opportunities
Challenge
Look at a variety of diary
entries – what have they got
in common? (discuss)
What was so important
about Sutton Hoo? What
happened there? (research
and discuss)
What are the key features
of a newspaper report?
(discuss)
What do you think is
appropriate to write to your
Viking family? (good news?
bad news?) How do you
want to make them feel?
Manor Green Primary Academy
Key Stage 2
Year 4
Autumn 1
Thematic Curriculum – Medium Term Planning
Theme Title:
Is home where the heart is?
Key Focus
Content
Programme of study
MATHEMATICS
Roman Numerals to 100 (build
upon the introduction of Roman
numerals in year 3 theme)
Pupils should be taught to:
 round any number to the nearest 10, 100 or 1000
 solve number and practical problems with increasingly large
positive numbers
 read Roman numerals to 100 (I to C) and know that over time, the
numeral system changed to include the concept of zero and place
value.
 describe positions on a 2-D grid as coordinates in the first
quadrant
Vocabulary of time (century,
decade, day, hour, minute,
second)
Coordinates (Map work)
DESIGN TECHNOLOGY
Cooking and nutrition
Planning a meal for a Viking
about to go into battle or to set
off on a long journey (in pairs)
Pupils should be taught to:
 understand and apply the principles of a healthy and varied diet
 understand what to do to be hygienic and safe
 prepare and cook a savoury dish using a range of cooking
techniques
 understand seasonality, and know where and how a variety of
ingredients are grown, reared, caught and processed.
 produce a plan and explain to others what you are going to
prepare
 present their meal in an interesting way
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
Heroes and Heroines
Inspirational People – not
necessarily famous
Unit 3.3 scheme of work
Pupils should:
 discuss what it means to be a hero or heroine
 be taught that heroes and heroines can be everyday people
 be introduced to people who inspire them
 aspire to be an inspiration to someone else (peers or younger
pupils)
COMPUTING
Pupils should be taught to:
 use a search engine to find a specific website (different aspects of
Anglo Saxon or Viking life / events)
 use tabbed browsing to open two or more website pages
 open a link to a new window
Using the internet
Google Earth – mapping skills
Resources
Investigative
opportunities
Challenge
Atlas, maps
Time lines
A variety of
cooking utensils
Learning
resource room
and staff room
Ghandi
Mother Theresa
Research what kinds of
food the Vikings ate, how
they cooked it and the
utensils they used.
Did the Vikings get their
food from the supermarket?
Where doid they get it
from? (Research and
discuss)
Who are the real heroes?
Discuss (P4C)
Different points of view
Google Earth
Ipads and
tablets
Computers
How do you know which
programmes are the most
reliable?
How do you make sure you
don’t just copy information?
Manor Green Primary Academy
Key Stage 2
Year 4
Autumn 1
Thematic Curriculum – Medium Term Planning
Theme Title:
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Key Focus
Content
Is home where the heart is?
open a document (Pdf) and view it
Programme of study
ART AND DESIGN
Children should :
Drawing – Viking artefacts.
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Vikings in battle
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MUSIC
Wider opportunities music brass (all year)
Children should be taught to:
 compose own music using the inter-related dimensions of music
 develop knowledge of dynamics, pitch, timbre, texture, rhythm and
timbre
 evaluate own and others’ compositions using set criteria
Own compositions to show
movement of longboats on
journey (change of weather etc)
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Dance – actions of life on a
longboat or battle scene
be taught to use lines and marks for different textures and shade
be taught to understand the terms line, tone, shape and colour to
represent figures and forms in movement
begin to show facial expressions in their sketches
Children should be taught:
 to respond imaginatively to a range of stimuli.
 to create simple motifs and movement patterns to structure dance
phrases of their own
 to perform dances clearly and fluently
Resources
Vocabulary on
display for
pupils to refer
to.
Artefacts /
photographs
Charcoal, chalk,
different pencils
(Note taking)
Investigative
opportunities
Challenge
Can you explain why you
have chosen specific
materials to draw with
Tuned and
untuned
percussion
instruments
How will you decide what
happens on the journey?
CD –appropriate
dramatic music
What kind of movements
would represent the
actions? (discuss and
experiment)
How can you create the
mood of the ‘musical story’
of the Viking journey?